All posts tagged Wine Picks

I have a friend who has recently decided that he simply cannot tolerate tannic red wines. It’s become so extreme that if my friend tastes a wine with just the slightest touch of tannin, the entire evening is spoiled.

I’ve tried ordering only the softest of reds: Pinot Noirs, Gamays, a Refosco, a really lush Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And yet it’s never soft enough. Invariably my friend will turn to me, his voice full of reproach, and say: “There are tannins in here,” and hold out his glass.

And then I tasted a Garnacha from Spain that may be my friend’s holy grail. The just-released 2009 Evodia is a joint project between…

At times I feel that the Holy Grail is probably easier to find than a good $20 Pinot Noir — and yet I persist in the quest. It’s easy to find a good $10 Cote du Rhone or even a good $20 Cabernet. But good Pinot tends to hang out in the more expensive neighborhoods.

This past week, though, I managed to run one to ground in a remote stretch of California’s Santa Maria Valley, home to Au Bon Climat, the winery that helped put Santa Barbara County on the map after its founding in 1982. Unfortunately, I was unable to meet with Jim Clendenden, the shaggy, messianic, Hawaiian-shirted maestro of ABC. He was in Japan conducting a tasting for the crown princess, or so I was told — and knowing Jim, I believe it.

One of these days I will catch up with him, but in his absence, I tasted wines with…

One of the delights of the London International Wine Fair is spreading your wings and tasting something a little different. This morning I attempted to find a solution to the perennial problem of finding wines that one can drink at lunch or supper that will not leave you feeling exhausted and dazed.

At the wines of Germany stand, sommelier Andrea Briccarello of London’s Galvin La Chappelle showed three German red wines that might just do the trick. Not only are they light and fresh enough not to destroy your afternoon, they also pair well with lighter dishes. The first, 2008 Spätburgunder Estate QbA Weingut Friedrich Becker Pfalz, made from Pinot Noir, is clean, bright and spicy. This would pair very well with…

The city of Vienna is famous for its Freudian-trained analysts, its great desserts and its music, of course. It has never had much of a reputation for its wines. And yet Vienna is the only great city in the world where hundred–year-old vineyards can be found virtually within the city limits — and where winemakers can take public trams to their jobs. Two Viennese-born, New York transplants, Paul Darcy and Carlo Huber, founded their company Darcy and Huber a year ago to ensure Viennese wines are better known.

I met Darcy and Huber at the Austria Uncorked tasting in Tribeca yesterday. The two men were noticeable on several counts, but chiefly because they were hoisting some of the biggest bottles around. “The two-liter size is the traditional bottle at Viennese family meals,” explained Darcy about the outsize bottle in his hands as he was pouring some Gemischter Satz in my glass.

Gemischter Satz is a “field blend” white wine that is a specialty of the Vienna wineries. It can contain…

Cooperatives are seldom the source of great wines, although there are a few exceptions. La Chablisienne makes some pretty good Chablis. But my favorite cooperative is Produttori del Barbaresco, which makes generic and single-vineyard Barbarescos from the Nebbiolo grapes of numerous local growers in Piedmont, Italy. These wines are always a good value compared to the famous producers, like Giacosa and Gaja. Both the 2004 and 2006 vintages of the Produttori wines are stellar, though a bit young yet. The very ripe ’03s probably won’t make old bones but they are drinking well now—I had a delicious bottle at Lupa, in Manhattan’s Village, not too long ago.

Much as I like these wines, I was unprepared for the experience of drinking a 1978 Produttori del Barbaresco the other night at a dinner with friends at Cru. When I first tasted the wine blind, in a decanter, I said “old Barolo.” It had an earthy, truffly nose and that…

New Yorkers who get thirsty after reading this week’s column on Chablis should think about heading over to Cru, the three-star restaurant in Manhattan with a monster wine list. For the rest of April and all of May sommelier Greg Majors is offering Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chablis on his list for 35% off. Cru has over a hundred Chablis, including a great selection of rare Grand and Premier Crus from Raveneau and Dauvissat.

The pre-discount list includes goodies like multiple vintages of René & Vincent Dauvissat “La Foret,” one of my favorite Premier Crus. The very good 2005 is listed at $130. Louis Michel 2004 “Montée de Tonnerre” is $95 before discount. I would love to try the 2002 Droin (not to be confused with Drouhin) Valmur for $90. For those with deep pockets and a serious Chablis habit, there are…

On the list of wines whose reputations have been long maligned, Lambrusco must be pretty close to the top, in position four or five. This is largely thanks to a single wine, Riunite, whose tagline “Riunite on ice- it’s nice” was a big reason behind its less-than-stellar reputation. Although that slogan has since been mothballed, the impact on the Lambrusco name lives on.

But there are some really good Lambruscos that have nothing to do with Ruinite. Like the Lini Lambruscos imported by Nicola Marzovilla, owner of I Trulli restaurant and Vino wine shop in New York. Marzovilla has seen a whole new generation of Lambrusco drinkers who are blissfully ignorant of any pejorative association with the wine. “Anyone under 40, and especially women under 30, have no experience with Lambrusco or Riunite. They just know that it’s fizzy and cold.”…

Bordeaux Quay in Bristol, England, takes its name from the many cases of Claret and Sauternes that have been shipped over the centuries to this city that lies on the Western coast of Britain. Bristol, as well as Leith in Edinburgh and London, was one of the three major points of entry for wine coming into England from Bordeaux.

Sitting here today, with the sun shining on the dock, and the town now replete with cafes and bars, it’s hard to imagine that for hundreds of years, wine has played an integral role in the economy of this port. More than 800 years ago, ports such as Leith received regular shipments of Claret — what was then a thin, light red wine as Bordeaux in the 12th century was under the crown of England’s King Henry II, who had been bequeathed the region by his wife Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitane…

Good value and the quest for the unfamiliar — that what’s surfing the wine route is all about. Of course we all love to cover and enjoy the established players, the well-known regions, the consistent producer. But nothing beats the thrill of the unknown — finding a wine that really excites — and then discovering it is not going to pick a fight with your wallet.

On Monday night I must have found half a dozen or so wines at ViniPortugal’s major London tasting. Portuguese table wine suffers from the unfamiliar. Grape varieties such as Alfrocheiro, Trincadeira and Roupeiro tend not to roll off the tongue as easy as Chardonnay, Merlot or Shiraz. But given the quality on offer — many of these wines come in at under $10 a bottle — you begin to…

Spring is a tricky drinking month. In London, cold mornings, chill winds and heavy downpours can switch, quite rapidly, to balmy nights, sweltering afternoons and hours of sunshine. For the wine lover it requires a degree of ambidexstrousness as we flip from light red wine to heavy white or vice a versa. In recent years, I have found the delights of rosé have helped fill this void.

While rosé Champagne is lauded as a fine wine (as Jay McInerney wrote in his column last week), its still cousin often struggles with its reputation. In the U.K. the blame can, in part, be attributed to Portugal’s Mateus rosé, which flooded the market in the ‘70s and ‘80s, providing a massive marketing success but horrifying the aficionados. But rosé is once again back in vogue and this time it has a much more serious hue…

About On Wine

The Wall Street Journal’s On Wine blog provides incisive criticism and accessible advice, both professional and personal, on the world of wine. Jay McInerney (left), Lettie Teague (center) and Will Lyons (right) are the lead writers. Ms. Teague and Mr. McInerney write the On Wine column Saturdays in Weekend Journal. Mr. Lyons writes a weekly wine column for the European edition of the Wall Street Journal.